Control the Seas in Civilization: Beyond Earth's First Expansion

Since the beginning of the Sid Meier's Civilization franchise, players have been tethered to land. Coastal cities and oceanic trade routes are key to expansion, and naval superiority is often helpful in military pursuits, but most leaders succeed by dominating the sprawling continents. Soon, though, that approach will face complications.

Civilization: Beyond Earth's first expansion, Rising Tide, invites players to the seas. Maps aren't divided anymore. Coastlines are no longer boundaries. Settlers can colonize water tiles, establishing cities as far into the ocean as desired. And in addition to this maritime focus, Firaxis is incorporating a new diplomatic approach, hybrid affinities, factions and artifact system.

Beyond Earth RT Screenshots

3 IMAGES

Fullscreen Image

Artboard 3 Copy

Artboard 3

ESC

01 OF 03

Civilization: Beyond Earth: Rising Tide -- Expansion Screen

01 OF 03

Civilization: Beyond Earth: Rising Tide -- Expansion Screen

Beyond Earth RT Screenshots

Download Image

Captions

ESC

Similar to Civilization V's Brave New World expansion, or XCOM: Enemy Within, Rising Tide is not only giving players more of what they know, but also drastically warping how the game is played.

"It's not just extending the gameplay on land, but rebuilding what the most foundational activities of Civ are," David McDonough, co-lead designer said. "This leads to a 100 percent playable planet. From any game, large to small, the territory you own can sweeap across a planet, as one cohesive empire."

This challenges players in a variety of ways: how are floating cities defended against sea-dwelling monsters? Where are the best underwater resources hidden? How does settling this specific water tile create new opportunities across the map?

Exit Theatre Mode

Once players establish their Atlantis-like hubs, they can turn attention to other civilizations with Rising Tide's new diplomacy system. It's not just an iteration on what exists in the vanilla Beyond Earth, but a whole new idea of how diplomacy can work, McDonough said.

Most Civilization games feature actual historical people who might be judged by their real-world historical behavior: Gandhi is likely to avoid war, while Napoleon could be quick to attack.

With Beyond Earth's fictional leaders, though, these pre-conceived notions don't exist. Players can be more open to gauging other leaders based on their decisions –– think "sci-fi Game of Thrones."

Exit Theatre Mode

"Some will respond differently to diplomacy than others," McDonough said. "Some will begin peacefully, but evolve into a militaristic civilization when backed into a corner. Upgrading diplomatic traits and leveraging your own position in the grand scheme of things isn't just a button panel on the side, but something that underlies every single turn."

This new diplomatic design accomplishes another of Firaxis' aims with Rising Tide: better story and characterization. Many of Beyond Earth's fans thought there wasn't enough of either in the base game, producer Andrew Frederiksen said. Now, Firaxis wants to express leaders' backstories not only in lore pages and pause menus, but in gameplay itself.

Take the Al-Falah, for instance. As one of the four new factions included with Rising Tide, the nomadic explorers descended from Earth's Middle-Eastern states play an integral role in Beyond Earth's overarching lore. These pioneers didn't enter cryo sleep when they left their home planet, so several generations lived and died onboard their spacecraft. Many have never set foot on an actual planet.

"Everything we think about now is encompassing the story as much as it is the systems," Frederiksen said. "There are these stakes involved for each civilization, and we want to push them to the forefront of players's minds."

Rising Tide introduces several other features to the Beyond Earth formula, and if they seem minor, that's only in comparison to the innovations mentioned above. Players can invest in multiple Affinity specializations to unlock new units and upgrades; alien artifacts lie in wait to be discovered and combine for unique effects; and Primordial world, a newly formed volcanic landscape, is one of two new biomes players can colonize.

In the end, as with previous expansions in Firaxis' strategy franchises, Rising Tide isn't just adding content –– it's changing the game itself, complete with any habits players might have learned during their time on Beyond Earth's celestial worlds.

Exit Theatre Mode

"It's all about reworking things, and seeing how differently things can unfold," Frederiksen said. "In essence, you have the same goals, but you're using different tools to get there."

Firaxis plans to release Civilization: Beyond Earth –– Rising Tide this fall on PC, Mac and Linux for $30. For more news regarding the latest installment in the long-running strategy series, stay tuned to IGN.

Mike Mahardy is a journalist based in New York. You can follow him on Twitter at @mmahardy, where he's likely ranting about Wes Anderson films and the NY Yankees.